Professor Ittner is the head of the Transgenic Animal Unit (TAU) at the University of New South Wales. He has over 15 years of experience with genetically modified mice. He trained in medicine at the University of Ulm in Germany, and received his M.D. from the University of Zurich in Switzerland in 2002, followed by postdocs at the University of Zurich, studying neuronal stem cells and signalling pathways, and the University of Sydney, focusing on basic pathomechanisms in Alzheimer’s disease. In 2013, he was appointed to the University of New South Wales in Sydney to establish the Transgenic Animal Unit. His own research focuses on understanding disease mechanisms in neurodegeneration and the development of novel therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, related forms of dementia and stroke.

All instructions and safety documents relevant to staff, students and researchers in the Analytical Centre should be available on the UNSW SafeSys document system. Contact the laboratory custodian for more information on specific safety documents for their area.

The Analytical Centre has a group known as the Level 3 OHS Consultation Committee that monitors safety in our workplace. The purpose of the committee is to enable staff, students and visitors to communicate safety issues to the Analytical Centre's management. The committee has a constitution which states the role and responsibility of the committee, the names of the members, and how often they are required to meet. Each Unit in the Centre has a representative on the committee who you can contact to report safety issues to the committee.

Specimen quality is often a deciding factor in obtaining top tier biomedical images, therefore the BMIF has established the Biological Specimen Preparation Laboratory (BSP) to aid researchers in preparing their samples for imaging on BMIF equipment.

BSP staff have many years of specimen preparation experience covering a wide range of different experimental techniques and are ready to assist UNSW researchers to better prepare samples for biomedical imaging.

Gas Chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) combines two powerful analytical tools: gas chromatography for the highly efficient gas-phase separation of components in complex mixtures, and mass spectrometry for the confirmation of identity of these components as well as for the identification of unknowns. The HP 6890-5973 GC/MSD allows the analysis of small molecules (m/z 50-800) in a wide range of sample matrices. This system can be operated in electron ionisation (EI) and chemical ionisation (CI) modes.

The Alpha-Step D-600 provides rapid, high resolution 2D and 3D profiling of a sample surface with a vertical range of 1200 micrometers and sub-Angstrom resolution. The instrument has a high resolution camera for visualising the sample, and a 200 mm motorised stage with a range of motion of 150 x 178 mm. The data is particularly useful for calibrating depth profiles performed on the XPS or TOFSIMS.

My research interests are focused on statistical methods applied to epidemiological, psychological and population health data. My main application area is in road safety and injury research, although I routinely collaborate with cancer, psychological and cardiovascular researchers.

The following table provides an indicative estimate of the time required to acquire an image and the number of animals that can be included in an image with each of the systems. Actual times may vary with particular applications.